The Benefits Of Friendship
by spikespetslayer
Summary: Takes place immediately following Penny singing Sheldon 'Soft Kitty' in the Vegas Renormalization. Penny allows Sheldon to sleep in her bed when he's locked out of his house, but sleeping Penny can be a dangerous thing, as Sheldon discovers. Rated M for sexual situations and language.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: I never write author's notes-probably because I hate reading them, lol. But this one is special._

_I want to wish each and every one of you a Happy Valentine's Day. In the last few days I've posted quite a bit and the responses have been overwhelming. I truly appreciate every review, every favorite, every alert more than you will ever know. _

_This story-well, I saw a prompt for Penny sleepwalks on one of the C2 communities and I couldn't help myself-this seemed like the perfect time for her to sleepwalk, amirite?_

_So, enjoy-enjoy the story, enjoy Valentines Day, and enjoy the ones that you love. All my love to each of you. All my gratitude as well. Blessings~ Dedra, aka spikespetslayer_

*Takes place immediately after the events of The Vegas Renormalization.

* * *

Penny stood next to the bed for a moment after Sheldon had rudely demanded that she leave because he was sleepy now. Typical Sheldon behavior—do what he wants, get his needs met, and then throw her out. She wondered for a split second if there was a person on this planet that was as self-centered as Sheldon Cooper was, then she shrugged as she climbed back on the couch. Probably not, but then again, he was a genius and they always seemed to have 'special needs'. Maybe just being that smart killed any part of the brain that covered interpersonal relationships—then again, maybe Sheldon was just an ass.

As she moved around to find a comfortable position, she chastised herself. Stupid to give up your bed to Dracula. Stupid to think that he could or would be grateful. Stupid to think that he might actually be a gentleman and share the bed with her. She was just stupid.

She dozed off finally, wishing that she had some alcohol to lubricate her mind and make it a lot easier to shut down her inner voice so she could get some sleep.

* * *

Penny had her own little quirks, just as we all do, but she was far more adept at keeping them under wraps than Sheldon was. Her shoes were kept in their boxes with photographs on the outside so she could see at a glance which pair would be her best choice. She was almost as anal-retentive over her makeup as Sheldon was everything else; her mascara and eyeliner had a little white dot with the date opened and she was faithful about replacing them every three months. The one quirk that she really had no control over was her sleepwalking.

It wasn't just security that forced her to put several locks on the door. It was to keep her inside when she walked around in her sleep; she usually gave up after one lock, sometimes two, but she never made it through all four. It kept her in the apartment and more important, it kept her safe.

Tonight was no different from any other night.

She climbed off the couch and went to the front door to mess with the locks. The lock on the doorknob was no barrier, but when she went to open the door, she couldn't pull it open, so she gave up. She went to the kitchen and got a drink of water, then headed back to bed, forgetting that she had a guest.

Sheldon had roused when she was messing with the front door. He leaned up and watched her as she wandered around the apartment and froze in shock when she made her way to the bedroom, raised the comforter, and climbed into the bed with him.

She curled around him, purring in her sleep. He tried to move away from her and she grabbed him, throwing her leg over the lower half of his body to keep him in place. He waited until she was still and silent before he tried to move again, but his slightest movement alerted her and she pulled him closer, gripping him tighter to keep him from moving away.

He laid there awake with his heart pounding and eyes wide open, wondering exactly how to extract himself from her embrace. He really didn't know how she could invade his space when he was so adamant about not touching him; he had no idea she was still asleep.

He almost jumped out of his clothes when her lips touched the spot under his ear.

He turned his head, preparing to chastise her thoroughly and she pressed her mouth to his, her lips soft and gentle against his own. He couldn't help himself; he closed his eyes and let her plunder his mouth with her tongue. The sensations were completely foreign to him but he stilled his natural impulses to run, scream, scrub himself off with antibacterial wipes and sanitizers; he was naturally curious about the whole 'friends with benefits' paradigm and it was in his nature to perform experiments to understand things. This experience was one that he would classify as an experiment and he would just have to suffer whatever indignities Penny put upon him to obtain the results that he needed for his own peace of mind.

* * *

Penny was naturally affectionate and never more so than when she was asleep. She curled up next to his warm body and snuggled on his shoulder, impulsively kissing him under his ear. She had found out early on that this was usually a sensitive spot and she used that frequently to jumpstart many of her sexual encounters. She was a woman with healthy sexual appetites, no matter what Sheldon Cooper said; that was not promiscuity, in her book, just a way of trying on a partner, much like you would try on a shoe before you bought it.

She reached for him and found his mouth. Oh, kissing! She loved kissing. She pressed her lips against his and found them soft and warm, little pillows of love that she pressed and molded with her own mouth until they were parted and lax, ready for her to slip her tongue inside.

At first, it seemed like he was resisting her, trying to get away, but then all the fight went out of him and she was actually able to kiss him. Her tongue explored his mouth and she reveled in the clean taste of him on her taste buds. He started responding, his tongue touching her own tentatively. Her hand came up to caress his jaw and her nails rasped along the slight stubble as their tongues caressed one another.

Wow, this was really turning her on. Too bad it was only a dream.

She reached down to touch his chest and found layers and layers of clothes. She slipped her hand under his shirts and found his stomach underneath them, her hand traveling upwards and moving the shirt out of the way to expose the skin beneath it. Impatiently, she pulled the bottom of the shirt up and over his head and he gasped at her forward behavior. She didn't care; he was in her bed and she was sure that he knew what that meant when he came home with her.

When his chest was bare, she started working her way down, her mouth trailing fire across his body. She flicked her tongue across his nipple and heard his sharply indrawn breath, then nibbled it with the edges of her teeth, careful not to bite too hard or break the skin. Her hands were busy as well, caressing his skin and the light sprinkle of hair in the center of his chest.

She threw her leg over him and sat on top of his pelvis. Oh, my—she could already feel his erection poking her and it felt wonderful. It had been too long since her last encounter; she was feeling quite randy, to tell the truth. Wait—why did she still have her clothes on? She reached down and pulled her robe and shirt off in one smooth motion, baring her flesh to the cool night air in the room.

* * *

Sheldon was shocked to his core. Penny had just taken off her clothes in front of him, leaving herself dressed only in her tiny little sleep shorts. He was frozen in place, his body betraying him as she moved on top of him, touched him with her mouth and teeth. He could do nothing but watch as the situation unfolded; it really didn't matter, since she had told him that she liked to initiate coitus. She was doing all the work and he was reaping the benefits. Maybe that was the origin of the friends with benefits paradigm. Perhaps if he regained his courage, he would ask her later.

* * *

She stroked down his sides with her hands, feeling the muscles in his stomach bunch as she touched him. He was slightly thinner than her usual pickups, but that was okay; she had found herself more attracted to the skinny, nerdy type than before, probably because she was so attracted to Sheldon.

He still had his pants on. Well, that wouldn't do, that wouldn't do at all. Her nimble fingers made short work of his zipper and button, and then she was at his feet, yanking his pants down over his legs and throwing them on the floor with his shirt. His hands came over to cover himself and she pushed them aside, opening her eyes so she could see the beautiful bulge that had been pressed against her so tightly a moment before.

It was probably one of the most beautiful cocks that she had ever seen. It was thick, long, and hard as steel, the glans purpled and glistening with the vestiges of pre-come oozing slowly from the slit at the tip. She grasped it with her hand and it leaped at her touch, thrilling her to no end. She had the sudden urge to taste it so she leaned forward, her tongue stroking the tip lightly as she gave him a sniff. That was one of her quirks; if a man didn't smell clean, he came nowhere near her. There were many hand jobs in her past since she made that rule, especially back in Nebraska. This man smelled heavenly, cleanly masculine, and she couldn't help herself—she bent her head and took him in her mouth, pulling him in deep until he nudged the back of her throat.

She heard him grunt, and then a long, rolling moan erupted from his throat. His hands fluttered around her shoulders before grabbing her hair, holding it out of her way. Oh, she did love doing this—it gave her such a feeling of power, of dominance, knowing that their pleasure depended on her mouth and tongue and what it could do. What she couldn't fit inside her mouth, she grasped with her hand, stroking up and down the shaft in time with her oral ministrations until she was too excited to continue. She dragged her shorts down one handed and kicked them off to the side as she moved up his legs to his pelvis.

She reached her hand down and touched herself, finding her pussy already wet and ready, and then she steadied his cock in her hand. She teased herself for a moment, brushing the glans over her clit before she positioned him at her entrance and let it slide deep inside her.

* * *

He could not believe what she was doing. Touching him with her mouth—so unsanitary. Did she know how many rules she had broken, how many strikes that she had incurred in this one incident? Knowing Penny, it didn't matter to her. One strike, ten strikes, nothing seemed to faze her.

When she impaled himself on his erection, though—it erased every strike, as well as every conscious thought from his mind. He was too enraptured by the sensation of her body wrapped around his to register that they had not used a condom.

* * *

Penny remained still, allowing her body to get accustomed to the size of him and the incredibly full feeling inside her. God, she could get used to feeling like this. She leaned down and sucked on his lower lip before nipping it with her teeth, then grabbed his hands and pressed them to her breasts, holding them there as she tensed her thighs and raised her body slowly. He must have got the idea then because his hands tightened on her breasts, her nipples pinched between his fingers.

She couldn't keep her hands off him. His skin seemed so soft under her hands and she let herself touch him everywhere, from his shoulders down his arms to his beautiful hands that still rested on her breasts. She brought one up to her mouth and sucked on each finger as she rose and fell and she heard him groan in response. "Feel good, baby?" she asked, and she took two fingers into her mouth, drawing them out slowly and nipping the tips. She guided it between her breasts down to her stomach and pressed them to her clitoris. "Touch me," she commanded.

He fumbled around for a moment, and then seemed to find his way as he pressed his fingertips against her. She fell forward, gasping into his mouth as he stimulated her in the most delicious way; she rotated her hips and clenched her inner muscles on him as she fucked his mouth with her tongue. His hands grabbed her hips, stilling her. "I want to be on top," he rasped. She moved off him and fell onto the bed, pulling him to her with palpable eagerness.

"Please, Sheldon, fuck me. Oh, please," she moaned. He froze in place and then she touched him, pulling him into her and he began to move his hips in time with hers. He was slow and hesitant at first, his motions revealing his lack of experience. As he plunged into her, he gained confidence; he touched her like she had touched him, sweeping his hands over her skin in broad strokes from her shoulders to chest, down her stomach, and then back up to bring her breasts to his mouth.

He touched his tongue to her nipple and it crinkled under his touch, sending a thrill down his spine. Her hands held him in place against her, crushing her breast into his mouth. She twisted her fingers in his hair, teased his ear, stroked his neck and shoulders as he tormented her, teasing her nipples as he thrust in and out of her slowly.

She cupped his face in her hands and drew his head up over her, looking up at him in the dim light from the bathroom. "Sheldon," she said breathily, then pulled his head down and took possession of his mouth. He let himself get lost in her mouth, her eyes, her body as she let herself go over the edge of completion, her orgasm overtaking her easily.

He watched her as she came apart beneath him, fascinated by the pained pleasure on her face. It was a paradox, the combination of agony and ecstasy that painted her features. He studied it closely, intrigued by the contrasts it presented, not realizing that he had stopped moving altogether until she grabbed his ass and buried her nails in his flesh, forcing him into her to evade the pleasurable pain.

With a jolt, he remembered exactly what he was doing when she braced her feet on the back of his thighs and arched into him, her hips rising off the bed to meet his. "God, don't stop. Please, don't tease me, Sheldon. Fuck me, sweetie…really fuck me."

"Very well." He braced his hands against the bed next to her shoulders and let himself follow his biological imperative to move and so he did, his shallow, slow thrusts deepening and speeding up until he was sweating, droplets of moisture dripping from his hair and chin. She stroked his face to wipe away the sweat and he dropped his forehead to rest against hers, their harsh gasps and the slapping of flesh the only sounds in the room.

His ears picked up a low whimper and he opened his eyes to see her writhing beneath him. The pressure was building for him as well; he wanted to examine how this was affecting him, but he could barely think straight right now, his brain tearing off in too many directions as the stimulus overwhelmed his logical mind. He decided to attempt to relax and had to force himself to relinquish his normal reserve.

Her mouth was on his throat again, her teeth nipping at the skin and he started to shiver, an unknown sensation growing strong in his gut. This was different from what he knew; his only experience with orgasm was by his own hand and he could anticipate each feeling with alacrity. This, however, was entirely new and untested, at least by him.

She moved her legs and he was banging his pelvis against hers, fearful of hurting her but unable to stop himself. Suddenly the pressure ruptured inside him and he was coming hard, his eyes clenched shut as the sensations overwhelmed him, shorting out his nervous system. He heard her whimper as it erupted from her throat in a groan that tore through him, his name falling repeatedly from her lips as she tightened in exquisite agony once again.

He collapsed on her, panting harshly, his arms too weak to hold himself upright any longer. Her arms came around his back and held him close to her, her whispers unintelligible as he came down from the high of his completion. He rolled off to the side, she turned to face him, her arm across his chest, and her legs wrapped around his thigh. She cuddled close and fell asleep almost instantly, her head on his chest.

He laid there awake, evaluating the events of the night as he tried to quiet his mind enough to sleep once again. He was uncomfortable naked; he had never been comfortable enough with his own body (or his upbringing, if he was honest) to remain naked for long, but it seemed wrong to climb out of bed and dress when he really had no place else to go. He looked down at the soft, sweet-smelling woman in the bed with him and, with a mental shrug, he closed his eyes and forced his mind to grind to a halt for the night.

Before he knew it, he was asleep, his arms still around Penny and her head still pillowed on his chest.

* * *

Sheldon woke at his normal time, 6:15am. He extricated himself from Penny's clutches and eased out of the bed, dressing in the bathroom. He glanced down at her as she reached for him, searching the bed with her hand before giving up and falling into a deep slumber.

Since his friends had not yet returned, he busied himself on the couch with his laptop, checking email and answering the most banal inquiries. He was imminently relieved when he heard Leonard climbing the stairs, happy to be heading home to his own apartment.

He really needed to catalog the thoughts and opinions from their activities the night before. He would do so at home where he could logically distinguish his reactions in the safety of his bedroom. He had the feeling that Leonard would not take kindly to their carnal activities from the night before.

* * *

Penny woke up at eleven. She was in her own bed, naked, the room reeking of sex. She thought back to the night before and realized that there was not a stranger in her bed, it was Sheldon. Sheldon had been in her bed, she was naked now—, and sticky, she realized.

Oh my god, what had she done?

She showered and dressed, picked up the extra blankets and pillows out of the living room and threw them on her bed, then picked up her clothes and sorted them into piles that she mentally labeled clean and dirty. She picked up the house as she thought about her problem—had she just dreamed she fucked Sheldon or had she really done it, and what should she do about it?

She decided to do nothing if he did nothing. If he didn't mention it, she wouldn't either; it was the only way to handle it, really.

There was no spring in her step as she crossed the hall. She refused to allow her shoulders to slump from the uncertainty, but she just couldn't get in her usual good mood when she thought she crossed a line with Sheldon.

He looked up at her when she entered, nodded her way, then turned his back and continued talking on the phone.

Okay, that was…weird. She looked at a magazine (one of theirs—she had left hers at home) until Sheldon was off the phone, then she walked up to him, pressing her hand to his arm.

He looked down at it, then back up at her face. He flushed slightly, but that could be from anything, not necessarily from anything that she had done.

"Sheldon, is Leonard here?"

"No, Penny. He went to the comic book store. He should be gone about an hour."

"Okay, thanks." She started toward the door and paused, turning back to look at him. "How did you sleep, baby?"

She wanted to bite her tongue when that came out, but Sheldon simply smiled. "I slept well when I finally dropped off to sleep. How did you sleep, Penny?"

"Good, good—though I woke up in my bed this morning instead of on the couch. Know anything about that?"

"Yes—you seem to have somnambulistic tendencies."

"Huh?"

"You sleepwalk."

"Oh." She had reached for the doorknob when he stopped her. "You don't remember anything?"

Oh my god, she did. She had. She just knew it in her gut. And if her dream was anything to go by, it was _good_. "No," she said softly, refusing to turn and face him. "I don't usually remember my dreams, Sheldon. Do you?"

"Oh, Penny, I remember everything."

She did stop to look at him then. He stood by his desk, holding his finger in a book as a placeholder as he watched her closely. "Well, I think that I'm going home now. I'll talk to you later, Sheldon."

"Yes, Penny, I'm sure that we will."

She paused outside the door, pressing her back against the cool metal. She was fatalistic about what had happened—she couldn't change it now, nor would she. It was a fantastic instance that happened between them and that was that.

She would love to believe that.

She thought that Sheldon might. She didn't, though. She knew the truth and things would never be the same again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Penny avoided 4A and its cohabitants as much as she could over the next couple of weeks and it really wasn't that difficult. She was picking up extra shifts at The Cheesecake Factory and trying her best to forget the night that Sheldon had stayed at her house. There were times when she truly thought that it was a dream; surely Sheldon, with his mysophobic personality, would have stopped her before she actually did anything to him. She remembered what he had said the next morning (and the fact she called him baby, a pet name that she usually reserved for lovers) and knew without a doubt (well, maybe a little bit of doubt) that something had happened between them. She still didn't possess the courage to ask him, though. She couldn't, not if she wanted to keep the thin tether of their friendship intact.

She was at work when she found the voicemail message from her landlord. The problem with her shower was being fixed—first thing in the morning. The plumber would likely be there all weekend and Mr. Lopez thought it would be best if she were out of the apartment for that amount of time since her water would be off and the bathroom in chaos.

Her hands flew over the buttons of her phone as she texted Sheldon.

_Shower getting fixed. Need somewhere to sleep. Couch available?_

It was only a few minutes before he answered. _Leonard is working night shifts on the particle laser; therefore, his bed would be available for your repose as long as you are out of it by 7 am. His requirements. Dr. Sheldon Cooper._

_Ok, thanks. I appreciate the offer, but I think I would be more comfortable on the couch. History, you know? _

_I see. I will inform him thusly. _

_God, Sheldon, don't tell him I won't sleep in his bed. _She figured it fell on deaf ears (or blind eyes, but hey, her mind worked that way sometimes), but she hit send and crossed her fingers.

It kind of amazed her sometimes the way that she and Sheldon really clicked. She didn't have to explain any farther than one line of text and he just got it, better than anyone did. Her parents, her coworkers, her friends—they didn't get it. Sheldon did.

She didn't hear anything else from Sheldon before she clocked out and went home, so she climbed the stairs and went directly to her apartment. She hid her tip jar, put the paper money in her purse so she could deposit it the next day, packed a small bag with her pajamas and essentials, and went to knock on the door to 4A.

Sheldon was already dressed in his pajamas when he answered the door. "Good evening, Penny." He held up a sheaf of papers for her. "Here is the temporary roommate agreement for you to look over."

She shoved the roommate agreement and him out of the way, tossing her suitcase on the floor next to the door and collapsing on her spot on the couch. "Oh, not now, Sheldon. I'm tired, I need a shower, and I don't even have my uniform off. Let me relax for a moment before you force me to think, okay?"

She could tell that he was perturbed as he picked up her suitcase and tutted his disapproval under his breath. She didn't have overly sensitive ears; he was just that transparent to her. "So shall I prepare the lavatory for your usual after work shower then?" he asked as he walked to the back of the apartment where the bedrooms were located.

"Prepare? How do you have to prepare?"

His consternation was more than evident when he returned empty handed, having placed her small case in Leonard's room. "I have to show you where the squeegee, the sanitizer, and the guest towels are. Or are you just a hippie that will dry off on her discarded clothing?"

"I think you know how close you are to me poking you in the nose, Sheldon. Show me the crap you need to so I can get in and out quicker. I'll tell you before you ever say it, though—I am not using a squeegee on the bathroom mirror. The fog will go away on its own and you know it."

Sheldon sighed as he escorted her into the bathroom. He laid each item out on the countertop, explaining its use as she examined her nails and ignored him. He paused and waited and she repeated, more from watching Leonard than listening to him. "Yes, Sheldon, when I'm done in the shower, spray the walls down with sanitizer and squeegee them until they squeak, then dry it with the paper towels and dispose of them in the trashcan." She pulled her mustard yellow vest over her head and heard him make a noise, and then she tossed it on the floor, forcing another strangled sound from his throat. "Now unless you want to see more of me than you've ever seen, you'd better run because the skirt is about to come off."

He slammed the door behind him and she grinned widely, and then realized what she had said to get him to leave. Hmm. Well, he didn't say anything to her inappropriate remark, but ran like the dickens to escape before she stripped. Uh-oh. Flirting—her cardinal sign of interest. Well, she knew that couldn't happen, not in this universe at least. She would be super vigilant tonight to prevent any repeat episodes, she vowed, stripping off the rest of her work uniform.

The hot water was a blessing in disguise; she had forgotten how wonderful it could be to have a shower that actually worked. She languished as long as she dared, taking her time with shaving her legs and washing her hair. She finished up and performed Sheldon's sanitizing ritual, a little sloppily but it was the thought that counted. She did end up squeegeeing the mirror, if only to comb through her unruly hair. Damn it anyway for him being right.

Tossing the towel into the guest hamper, she gathered her uniform and dumped it on top of her suitcase in Leonard's room. She padded down the hall in bare feet and found Sheldon finishing an episode of classic Star Trek.

He stood as she entered the room, suddenly nervous. "I shall leave you to make your bed. Kindly fold your linens and blankets when you are done with them in the morning."

"Yeah, will do, sweetie. Have a good night. Sweet dreams."

Sheldon didn't answer her; he was too busy thinking about the last time that they slept in any proximity to one another. With that memory in mind, he crossed to the front door and locked each lock, then propped the burglar bar against the door and latched it into the floor. "Good evening, Penny."

Without another glance in her direction or word spoken, he turned and retired to his room for the night.

She wondered about all the locks on the door, but then again, this was Sheldon. She was shocked that he didn't have an electrified field surrounding the whole building, as frightened as he was about the 'mean streets of Pasadena', although mean streets really was a stretch of the imagination. She tossed a sheet over the leather couch, grabbed the afghan off the back, and settled down for the night.

Sheldon couldn't sleep. His perfect memory was his bane tonight as he remembered every detail of the last encounter that he had experienced with Penny. He could remember everything about it, from her sweet scent to the sensation of her muscles as they pulsed and throbbed around his erect member.

In fact, it gave him an erection just thinking of it. He drew in a deep breath and held it, trying to clear his mind, but the thought of her lying on his couch with her head in his spot was almost more than he could stand. He glanced at his alarm clock and saw that it was almost two am—this whole thing was wreaking havoc on his REM sleep and his schedule and he decided then that he would have to relegate Penny to another couch somewhere, perhaps at Raj's apartment for the time being.

He was getting ready to climb out of bed for some warm milk when the doorknob turned and the door creaked open.

She slithered into his bed, curling up next to him as if she really did belong there. He was stiff and unyielding as she cuddled next to him, her blonde locks spilling over his arm as she rested her cheek against his shoulder. She threw her leg over both of his and nuzzled his neck, purring deep in her throat as she had the last time.

He did not want to admit it, but he was hoping that she would come to him and she had.

He jerked when he felt her hand touching him, trailing lightly over his pajama top along the front. Her hand popped each button out of its buttonhole as it caressed down the front of his body, and then she pulled his undershirt out of his pajamas. Her nails scratched along the thin line of hair beneath his navel, and then she moved her hand up to his chest, toying with the hair between his pectoral muscles. He noticed with part of his attention that she was twirling counter-clockwise, careful not to mat the hair on his chest.

He wanted to grab her hand but he was frozen in place, waiting, holding his breath. He wanted to see what she would do next; he anticipated it more than winning the Nobel Prize at that moment.

When her tongue ran up the side of his neck to his ear, he let out a gasping breath. When it circled the pinna and flicked the lobe, he wanted to groan aloud, and then did as she exhaled right onto the light wetness that she had left behind. He could see her smile in his mind's eye when she whispered, "You liked that, baby?"

He turned his head to speak to her, demand that she leave his bed and him in peace, but her mouth was right there, too close to avoid and she kissed him before the words crossed his lips and he was lost in her once again.

"Penny," he whispered. She didn't answer; she was too far under, too asleep to realize exactly what she was doing to him. She straddled his lap, her mouth trailing kisses along his chin and jawline and down his neck, leaving a trail of fire that ignited his nerves and immolated his protests.

She was fire to his ice, positive charge to his negative and he was powerless to stop her.

She gave him a frustrated look when she reached the neckline of his undershirt and yanked at it ineffectively before he reached down and pulled it over his head, along with his pajama top. For a moment, he wanted to fold them, but instead just dropped them off the side of the bed onto the floor as her fingers found his nipples, her tongue flat against his areola as she teased one, then the other. Distantly, he wondered if her nipples were as sensitive as his own seemed to be. She pulled her camisole off and tossed it aside, baring her skin and the objects of his questions to his eyes.

He didn't know what to do with his hands, so he placed them on her back, considering it a safe place. They didn't remain still, however, acting with a mind of their own and caressing the soft skin beneath them. She leaned forward and her breasts were within a scant centimeter of his face so he returned the favor, his mouth teasing the peaks of her breasts until they were hard and soft in his mouth at the same time.

He found that his hands had cupped her buttocks, pulling her closer to him to rest directly on his erection. She ground her hips against him, the heat of her seeping through his clothing, electrifying him. Were he to rank it with his other achievements, he would have to list this among the top ten. Thanks to a deity he did not believe in, he would not have to correlate this with any of his awards; nothing could compare at this moment.

She moved off him and he thought that their activities of this evening were complete. He was very, very wrong. She stripped off her sleep shorts and pulled his pajama bottoms off before she straddled him again, her skin pressing against his intimately. It struck him as incongruous how wet her vagina felt; it was wetter and hotter than it was the first time and he wondered for a split second if it would feel the same or different.

He didn't have to wonder for long. She reached down and grasped him in her hand, positioned him at her entrance and slid down, allowing him to enter her deepest, most intimate place. His hands flew to her sides to grasp her hips and hold her in place to prevent his premature ejaculation. He did not want to end this on a disappointing note at all.

She gave him control of her movements, leaning down to brush her mouth over his. Her hands came up to cup his face before her lips crashed down on his mouth aggressively, her tongue forcing its way into his mouth as she flexed muscles inside her vagina that he had no idea women possessed.

It was driving him mad. He felt the need to move inside her, to relieve that ache that was building deep inside him, though he had never felt it or needed it before. His hands pulled and pushed at her, moving her effortlessly on his erection. She assisted him as she devoured his mouth, her thighs clenching and relaxing as she raised and lowered her body onto the steely rod that was between her legs, penetrating her deeply.

He watched her, eyes wide open and memorizing every action, every curve of her body, the look on her face, the angle of her jaw as she arched into him. He couldn't tear them away from the sight of her; it was an equation that he found unsolvable.

She braced her hands against his knees and her rise and fall against him became erratic as she became more excited. Her mouth moved silently, no sound coming from her throat as she ground herself against him. Just as suddenly as it had all began, she started coming, her body jerking with the force of her orgasm as it hit her unexpectedly.

He gripped her hips and held onto her, afraid she would leave as abruptly as she had entered. As abruptly as she had fallen on him, taking him inside her. He wanted to watch her come apart, wanted the same feeling for himself as his mind blanked, his heart beating like a captured bird inside his chest. It was as mystifying to him as she was and he couldn't name the feeling inside him, only recognize it for the primitive urge that it was.

He had never truly felt the urge to mate with a female until tonight. Even the last time that this had occurred, he rationalized it as an anomaly, an instance not to be repeated. With this visit, however, he wondered if there were other reasons for her actions; those actions, however, were as opaque to him as looking through a mirror. The only actions, only motivations he could understand, truly understand, were his own and he could hardly understand those himself.

She fell onto his chest and kissed him soundly, whispering his name against his lips.

His hands moved her once again, pushing her down as he braced his feet against the bed and rose to meet her halfway. His mind was filled with the free flight of fancy as he let himself go beyond his own rigidity to a place where nothing mattered but them, two people finding each other in the darkness of the night and solitude of sleep.

She found him. She chose him. The thought alone was enough to propel him to the edge of glory and over into the blinding terror that was his release. His mind was a blank whiteboard and in the center of it all was Penny—her radiance, her glory, her beauty blinding him to everything but her. She was with him, around him, in him, and they were one. Distantly, he felt her musculature clenching around him as she reached her peak not once, but twice over, one orgasm blending into another as seamlessly as she had blended into their lives.

She fell over him, gasping for air, and he wrapped his arms around her and held her close, smelling her scent all around him as he buried his hands and nose in her hair. His mouth found the hollow beneath her ear and traced its perimeters as she quieted atop him, her limbs heavy as her eyes closed.

She fell asleep, rather, fell into a different stage of sleep on top of him, still intimately joined.

He supported her with his arms as he turned to the side, pulling himself out of her depths. He dressed himself, then obtained a warm towel and cleaned her of his spendings before he redressed her and led her back to the couch. As she snuggled down into the pillow, he brushed her hair off her forehead and shoulder, and then he bent down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head as an afterthought.

Tomorrow, he would begin researching. For tonight, what happened, happened. He could not change it. Frankly, he had no desire to. He did, however, want to know what had precipitated these incidents, more than ever now.

Within the week, he had determined that Penny suffered from a very rare NREM disorder, namely sexsomnia. He never had the chance to tell her, though, because the week that he spoke to the neurobiologist he had found, he was offered the chance to go to the Arctic to search for monopoles to prove M theory.

He wanted to tell her in their various video conferences or emails; however, there was no privacy to do so. Leonard, Raj, and Howard were always present, always in the background, never absent when email came or Penny was available via Skype.

When he found his monopoles, he was too excited and overcome to remember Penny's problems. The Nobel was within his grasp and nothing else mattered at that moment.

As he crossed the threshold into his apartment that had been meticulously cared for over the last three months, he remembered, suddenly and viscerally. His belly ached with the guilt of his omission, but there was no time to address it; he also discovered his friends' heinous actions and a different type of ache settled in his gut.

He packed his bags, ready to leave for Texas; he found that he could not leave. He had to speak to Penny privately, so he hid in her apartment until it was absolute that Leonard and his cohorts in crime were safely ensconced in his former abode. He texted Penny, warning her that he was in her home and he did not want to be found, then he read his old research, hunting for a way out of this academic and experimental hole and finding none.

He heard her in the hallway, speaking to Leonard. Leonard was trying to attain her affections; Sheldon knew this because it was all that he had spoken about in the long months of solitude, trapped in the snow and ice of the magnetic North Pole. She brushed him off and let herself into her apartment, even stopping Leonard at the door.

"Leonard, you will always be my friend, but I really think that ship has sailed. We dated once. That was enough. I really think that we're better as friends."

From his hiding place behind the door (in case Leonard would look into the apartment, he rationalized), Sheldon heard Leonard sigh.

"I just hoped, maybe…."

"Nope, Leonard. I missed all of you guys, but not that way. Just as friends."

"I see. Well, thanks for letting me down easy, Penny. You could have been a real bitch about it."

"Yes, but I'm not that type, Leonard. You know that. I even let Stuart down easy, if you remember, and we only went out twice."

"I know. You're a good person, Penny. I'm glad I can call you friend."

Leonard turned and went back to their apartment and Penny closed the door, revealing Sheldon's hiding place.

"Come on, sweetie. Time to tell me everything."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Somehow, with all the revelations and discussion of the Great Betrayal, he neglected to mention her problems with parasomnias. He had a list of questions that Dr. Fowler had given him, but he was preoccupied by his own situation and less than interested in Penny's sleeping problem at that time.

It was only when Penny yawned and suggested that they retire that he remembered his predicament. He had important information to impart and he completely forgot, too wrapped up in his own self to remember anything but his complete heartbreak.

He started to talk about it and she stopped him quickly. "Sheldon, you've told me numerous times that I snore. I don't snore. Now, you take my bed and I'll sleep on the couch. Don't get used to it. Tomorrow night you can sleep in your own bed, but I'll give you some place to hide out tonight."

"I am not hiding, Penny."

"Call it whatever you want to, Sheldon. You don't want to see them and I don't blame you. However, don't let them run you out of your own apartment, sweetie. You're better than that. You're stronger than that. Plus, you have the whole roommate agreement on your side. Use it."

"You are correct, Penny. I do have the advantage here. I appreciate your support."

"Yeah, I thought you might. Tough when there isn't anyone in your corner to cheer you on, isn't it? Anyway, good night, Sheldon."

"But Penny, I really should discuss something pressing with you before we retire for the night."

"Save it for morning, sweetie. I'm beat. All I want to do right now is stretch out as best I can and relax. We'll talk in the morning."

He went into her room and dressed for bed, certain that he would regret his silence.

* * *

Penny entered her room without knocking. Her eyes were wide open, but he could tell from previous observations that she was still asleep. Another episode of somnambulating, he thought. She lifted the blankets and dove right into the bed, snuggling up next to him as she had the times before.

For a millisecond, he was very glad that he came home from the Arctic.

Her hair slithered over his shoulder as she raised her head and nibbled his earlobe. He felt himself harden in his pajamas as she brushed her hand over his stomach, caressing his abdomen. Her nails scratched at his skin lightly, teasing him, and he let her hand roam over the flesh of his chest and stomach without hindering her. When she reached for his erection, however, his hand grasped her wrist and moved it away.

He had thought about this nightly when they were at the North Pole. Her visits in the night had made his weekly masturbation sessions far more palatable. They actually gave him another view of something that had become rote and routine for him. Instead of a faceless, nameless female, he thought of Penny and her bright, shining, sweet-smelling hair, the way that her vagina felt as it surrounded him, the way that her body pulsed with arousal and excitement as she rode him mercilessly.

There were things that he wanted, things that he desired that he could only imagine with _her_. With Penny. She would never judge him for his curiousity or inexperience; he could imagine her delight at being able to teach him about anything, since he frequently stated he knew everything. Yuu can only learn so much on the internet before porn starts appearing and Sheldon did not care for the bizarre and strange depictions of sexual congress he had stumbled upon at various times.

He would never admit to it, but Homo Novus was a lie that he had perpetuated for years. He decided when he met Leonard that there would be no need to broadcast his biological urges; it was humiliating enough that he had them, much less to actually give in to them. He would become a higher form of man, one beyond the needs of the flesh.

He never expected his flesh to turn traitor at the sight of blonde hair and green eyes. White, even teeth clamping down onto a plump lower lip when she concentrated on HALO, Super Mario Brothers, or physics. Long, shapely legs thrown haphazard across the expanse of couch between them. He never expected his body to act or react as it did, but it had. Oh, it had.

He turned on his side to face her as she fell to her back. She wore her pink robe over a camisole and boy short set, he noticed. The material was silky and soft under his hand as he ran it over her hip and up her side, smoothing the material as he went. He was once again amazed at how perfectly their bodies fit together; it was as if she were made for him, the curve of her hip fitting perfectly to the palm of his hand. He leaned down and touched his mouth to hers, slipping his tongue along the crease of her lips as she parted them for him, allowing him access to her mouth.

Time stood still as he kissed her, tasting the sweetness of her mouth on his tongue. He continued his slow, easy caresses, building her passion as he concentrated on areas that he knew were sensitive to her—her throat, her breasts, and the backs of her knees.

He stopped kissing her long enough to pull her robe off, leaving it beneath her as he stroked her arms. Her hands came up to twist in his hair as he pulled one strap of her camisole off her shoulder, his mouth blazing a path of fire across her skin and down to her breast. Her nipple was already erect, awaiting his touch and he was more than happy to provide it, his mouth circling around to the underside of her breast before he drew it into his mouth.

She moaned aloud at the sensation. "Oh, Sheldon, what you do to me…."

It pleased him greatly, to say the least.

She arched against his hand as it trailed down to her boy shorts, grazing the protrusion of her mons through the cloth. He toyed with her mercilessly, his hands and lips working in tandem to make her absolutely crazed with need. Her hips moved against his hand, still on the outside of her shorts and pressing hard against the dampness seeping through the fabric.

He finally hooked his thumb in the side of her shorts and dragged them down her legs. She raised her hips to assist him, and then dropped heavily back down on the bed with her legs spread open invitingly, waiting for him to do as he would.

He pulled her camisole over her head and laid it aside. Her skin was as silky as the fabric, his fingers gliding over her from head to toe as he continued to kiss her. Her hands were pulling at him, tugging him on top of her and he let her, positioning himself between her legs but remaining far enough away from her entrance to prevent her from moving along too fast.

He found himself curious about one part of the sexual experience that he had never tried. Cunnilingus. When she had fellated him, it had shocked him to his core, but he wondered (quite frequently) if she would enjoy the reciprocation.

He eased his way down her body until he was nose to, well, genitals with her.

Her mons was clean-shaven, not one speck of hair present. He had seen women in various stages of depilatory states (he couldn't help it with Wolowitz around) but he had never actually visualized a mons such as hers—or anyone else's, for that matter.

She was so…smooth, for lack of a better word.

He sniffed lightly and found she had a delicate, feminine scent that drew him toward her, enticing him. He pressed a kiss to the soft skin and she moaned again, arching her hips toward his mouth. He ran his hands over the flesh, and then parted her labia to find the ever-elusive clitoris. He had read extensively on the physiology of sex, the nervous system's response to stimulation, the mechanics of sexual pleasure, but seeing her in this state, feeling the attraction that he was feeling at this moment—it nearly overwhelmed him.

While he touched her gently with his fingers, he mentally recited _pi_ to the 387th place to prevent his own orgasm. It calmed him enough to continue and he leaned his head forward to touch her clitoris with his tongue.

Her response was more than gratifying. She grabbed his head and mashed it against her pubic bone, her clitoris protruding into his mouth. He flicked it with his tongue, and then experimented with tiny touches and little licks until he could feel her hips rocking under his head. Her hand left his head and he chanced a look up the length of her body to see her twisting her own nipples.

This seemed to excite him even more. His chin was getting wet, but not unpleasantly so as he moved closer to her. He inserted one finger into her vagina, slightly hesitant but willing to try. Her copious juices allowed it to glide right in and she jerked twice at the intrusion before relaxing and allowing him to continue his explorations.

Every action brought him a new discovery. There were variations in the inner passage of her body that he was unfamiliar with and he explored and tested a variety of techniques before he found a small nodule just inside the vestibule of her channel. With more than a little trepidation, he pressed on it and she reacted violently, arching her hips even further into his mouth. He alternated between licking her clitoris and pressing that spot until she was a writhing, moaning mess, her hands running over first her body, then his, trying to pull him on top of her.

He finally allowed her to yank his arm upward, following her direction. He stripped off his pajamas and positioned himself between her legs, his erection throbbing in time to his heartbeat. Bending his head down to kiss her deeply, he pressed into her slowly, feeling her body stretch to accommodate him.

She sighed happily and snuggled into his neck, her lips trailing along the corded muscle. Her teeth nipped at him as her hands pushed on his ass, encouraging him to move, but he wanted to stay where he was and enjoy it. And he was enjoying it, quite a bit.

He finally began moving, his thrusts slow and shallow, not wanting to injure her or rush to his own completion. She wrapped her legs around him and used him as leverage to arch into him, pulling him in deeper as he tried without success to keep an even pace. His hands smoothed the hair back from her face as she tossed her head from side to side, caught up in the sensation of them together, moving in the most primal dance there was.

He could tell she was close to orgasm; there was a deep flush that suffused her skin from her chin to her chest. Her nipples brushed his chest and at times, his own nipples and it forced a moan of his own out of his mouth.

She reached up to brush the hair off his forehead. "Sheldon, baby, that feels so good."

He pressed his mouth to her neck and let himself follow his biological imperatives once again. He was fucking her harder now, faster than he thought he could move, driven by his own excitement as well as hers. With one hand, he reached down and stimulated her clitoris with his thumb, rolling it in circles above the tender pearl of flesh.

Her hands gripped his shoulders, and then her nails broke his skin as she started arching against him, her moans becoming more high-pitched and increasing in volume as she came closer to coming. He slanted his mouth over hers, swallowing her scream when he felt her body clamp down around him, her muscles tight and vise-like as she came. Her tongue penetrated his mouth and distracted him momentarily, and then he felt his own orgasm begin to spiral up and out, his scrotum drawing up, tightening, pulling him closer to the ultimate pleasure.

He panted against her cheek, and then kissed down the side of her neck, nibbling on the soft skin behind her ear. Time slowed, telescoped into endless states of being and then unexpectedly he was coming, his hips jerking in staccato rhythm as he groaned her name against her shoulder.

She went completely rigid as he was still in mid-orgasm and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was awake. "Sheldon? Oh my God, Sheldon!"

He drew back and looked into her eyes, now awake and fully aware. "Penny?"

"What the—are we—oh my god, we are...we were…let me up, please." She shoved at his shoulder and he withdrew from her, still half-hard and jerking slightly with the aftereffects of his orgasm. He fell onto the bed and watched her wrap herself in her sheets, and then she reached for her clothing.

"Penny, allow me to explain…."

"Explain? Explain what? That you were fucking me while I was asleep? That you…that we…I can't even _think_ about this right now. I can't even look at you." She dragged her robe out from under her and wrapped herself in it, her clothes still in her hands. "Sheldon, I really think that you need to stay away from me for a while."

"Penny, I have not sought you out. Please notice where we are. We are in your room, not in your living room on the couch. You came to _me_. You have _been_ coming to me, not I to you."

Her head turned and she looked down at him. He couldn't decipher the look on her face, but if he were to hazard a guess, he would have to define it as disgust. "You knew that I was sleepwalking. You've commented on it before, haven't you? You knew that I wasn't awake and took advantage of that fact."

"I have done nothing of the sort, Penny."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but I really can't believe you right now." She climbed out of her bed and went to the bathroom door. "Just—don't. I don't want to see you right now."

With a hurt look, she glanced at him one last time before she walked out of the room and into the bathroom, closing the door gently behind her. He heard her sob as she turned on the shower and the sound of the water drowned out any other noises that she made. Steam billowed from under the bathroom door and he knew that he had damaged her with his inaction, or his actions, or both.

He never wanted to cry as badly as he did at that moment.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Penny knew that he was gone the second she stepped out of the shower.

At least she _thought_ he was gone, so she grabbed the nearest towel to cover herself and sprinted for the front door. It was closed and locked securely, the chain still in place.

She dropped the towel when a very masculine throat cleared behind her. "Unless you wish to continue the activities in which we were participating, I do not understand your nudity, Penny."

She started to squeak, and then covered herself with her hands. "You could be a gentleman and look away."

"Penny, this is the third time that I've seen you in this particular state of dishabille, therefore I already have it burned into my synapses and can imagine you in a state of undress from any angle, any time I wish. Even the parts that you are ineffectively hiding with your hands right now."

She let out a frustrated groan and grabbed the first thing that fell to her hand, which happened to be an oversized tee shirt, thank heaven. She pulled it on, flopped down on the couch next to him, and gave him a hard look that quelled whatever smart remark was going to come out of his mouth next.

"So, um, is that the first time? Wait, you said third—when were the first two?"

"Er—the first two times that you climbed in bed with me and violated my person."

"Violated your person?"

"Performed coitus on me. With me. I don't know what is unclear about this, Penny. I was not a willing participant either time." He turned his face to hide the tic in his left eye, feigning discomfort.

"That implies that you were a willing participant _this_ time."

She had him there. He didn't exclude this time from the others, not even in his head. "Yes, I will admit that I was hoping that you would make a conscious choice to sleep with me tonight."

"But instead I was unconscious again."

"Yes. While that may have been the case, there were instances when you said my name and no other, indicating that you had been dreaming of this for some time."

This time she couldn't meet his eyes. "So, you never did say when the other times were."

"The first time was when I spent the night when I was locked out of my apartment. The second was before we left for the North Pole, when your shower was being repaired."

"And tonight."

"Yes, tonight. Three times. All three times, you said my name."

"Yeah, about that…."

She looked up at him and his breath caught in his throat at the vulnerable and frightened look in her eyes. "I have been dreaming about you, Sheldon, not in a good way. That's not true—I thought they were good dreams, but that's all I thought they were, dreams. I didn't know that I was doing those things."

"I'm aware of that. You have sexsomnia."

"What?"

"Sexsomnia. It's a little known variation on somnambulating, but you perform sexual acts on people without waking, usually following some pattern of non-REM sleep."

"Oh. Well. Like sleep walking. That makes sense. It actually explains a lot." She chewed her lip, avoiding his eyes. "I mean, it isn't the first time something like that has happened…."

She didn't elaborate on her statement, just looked back at him with large, luminous eyes. "So—I'm sorry?"

"I do not understand the reason for your apology. Or, while I understand the premise under which you are apologizing, I do not understand your reticence in discovering the root cause of your sleeping problems."

She looked down at her hands and shook her head. "I'd rather not talk about it. I don't even remember it—at least, not until I woke up…like _that…_with you."

"Performing coitus with me?"

"Yes." She cringed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry that I…violated you, Sheldon," she said, using his words. "I wouldn't have done it if I'd been awake. Aware. You know what I mean."

"You would not have desired coitus with me?" he said quietly.

Something in his voice alerted her to his injured pride and her eyes flew up to find his. "I didn't mean it that way. I would not have invaded your space without your prior permission, Sheldon."

"You did not answer my question."

She pulled the shirt down over her knees and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, unconsciously giving him a direct view of her breasts via the gaping neckline of her shirt. "Do you know what I did every Thursday when you were in the Arctic?"

"As I was not present, I cannot begin to fathom in what manner you defiled our apartment."

"Every Thursday, I would go over to your apartment, air it out, cook for myself, and pretend that I was waiting for you to come home from CalTech."

He sat up straighter and started to protest her actions, then clamped his mouth closed on the criticism and sat back on the couch, listening. "I followed all your rules about cleaning; you can test the surfaces if you want. It was…a fantasy. I pretended sometimes that we were having an affair, or that we were married, or just that we were friends with benefits and I was your Thursday—your anything-can-happen-Thursday."

She didn't realize that fat tears had started rolling down her cheeks. "I pretended a lot of things, actually. I fantasized a lot. I slept in your bed in one of your shirts. I fingered myself raw, all over your apartment, wishing that you were home and it was you doing it instead of me. I missed you so bad and I pretended that you missed me, too."

She must have realized her distress because she dragged her hands across her cheeks and looked directly at him for the first time, her eyes still glittering. "I pretended that you missed me because of these fantastic, erotic dreams that I had before you left—that we were together and it was good, no, great, and we were a power couple like Brad and Angelina or…Queen Penelope and Sheldor the Conqueror."

She bit her lip and it drew his attention. "Now I find out that they weren't just dreams, they were real. And I missed it. I slept through some of the most intimate moments in my life and missed it. I feel really stupid right now."

"Why does that indicate stupidity?"

She rocked back on her heels and looked up at the ceiling. His eyes calculated the curvature of her long, lovely neck as it bowed with the force of her avoidance of his eyes. "Did you ever wonder if I thought about you?" Her change of mood seemed to throw him and he blinked owlishly, startled by her question. He chose instead to answer his own question.

"It does not indicate a lack of intelligence, Penny. Perhaps a measure of wishful thinking."

"Still, Sheldon, I'm such a fool. You didn't miss me. You probably never thought of me, not once. Never noticed that I wasn't there, sitting in your spot, or stealing your milk. Watching television and asking too many questions or stealing Wi-Fi, which I totally did while you were gone, by the way." She narrowed her eyes at him. "What kind of password was that, anyway? It sounded like a foreign language."

He didn't chew his lip; he barely prevented it. Instead, he examined his fingernails. "I would not say that, Penny." He ignored the question about the password.

She stared at him, willing him to continue. Unfortunately, he did not bend to her will. She thought about trying to explode his head with her mind a la Scanners, but figured that it wouldn't help. She decided to use her feminine wiles, although they had never penetrated Sheldon's armor before.

She laid her hand on his thigh and waited until he looked at her. "Are you saying you did miss me, Sheldon?"

"Your absence was duly noted in my day-to-day interactions, to my displeasure." Her eyes pierced through him and he found he could not prevent himself from continuing his thoughts. "Leonard's constant whining about you and your supposed relationship made my nerves stand on end until I finally snapped and informed all of them that he had no more chance with you than Stuart. I then informed them that I would be pursuing a dating relationship with you when we returned to Pasadena and banned them from speaking about you at all."

"Then why did Leonard even try? If he knew…."

"To prove me wrong. To snatch away even that small triumph from our trip to the north. They destroyed my experiment and he was determined from the moment that I made my pronouncement that he would win the challenge that was…you."

"But…you said that we had…well, we slept together. Even if I didn't remember, you did."

He looked deep into her eyes and she held her breath at the depth of emotion swimming in his eyes. "Yes, I did. Every millisecond is etched on my memory, every breath echoes in my mind. I could not block it from my thoughts, nor did I want to. It made me careless and lackadaisical in my scientific method. It distracted me from the reason for my trip. I was so focused on _not_ remembering every touch of your skin that I could not focus on the monopoles. I should have recognized the lack of data for what it was. I was duped by my cohorts into believing that we were 'suddenly' picking up readings." He cringed internally, embarrassed by the abrupt confession, the way his voice twanged and rose with each sentence until he was drawling like an east Texas hick. He turned away from her to hide his flaming face and heard her shift behind him.

"So it's my fault."

He turned back to look at her. "No, Penny, it is not your fault. The blame for it all rests on their heads. Not yours. Never yours."

"You couldn't stop thinking about it, though."

He grabbed her hands. "I didn't _want_ to stop thinking about it. It was the only thing that sustained me when I was there. The only memory that could soothe me when it was all going wrong, the only thing that could bring me peace when I was angry and demanding. The only thing that I wanted more than the monopoles to appear."

"What does this mean, Sheldon?"

He dropped her hands and put his hands over his eyes. "I believe that it means that I was more interested in returning to Pasadena to explore the possibilities of a relationship that I was in science. I was tremendously elated when the first signs of monopolar activity appeared. I knew that it was a sign that we would be able to return to California triumphant. I was hoping that you…well, that you would be amenable to going to Sweden to the awards ceremony with me. I was…premature in my fantasies. I should have never trusted my roommate and his friends. They have done irreparable damage to my reputation and my work because of jealousy and their vengeful natures."

She touched his wrist, wrapping her fingers around it to pull it down from his face. "I'm so sorry, Sheldon. I still feel like this is my fault, in a way."

"No! Penny, you cannot change what has happened. You had nothing to do with Leonard's actions or my own. We are the only ones responsible, not you."

"If I wouldn't have encouraged Leonard before you left, things might have been different."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. He has been delusional about your affections and your attraction toward him since early on, from the moment that you moved into the building. From the outset, he has claimed you for his own and informed us that your babies will be 'smart and beautiful', although why he postulates that I will never understand. Basic genetic theory would suggest that the children of such a union…."

"Would never exist, since he ruined any chance with me when he screwed up your polar thingy." She ran her hand over his back, stroking him lightly and soothing him more than she could ever imagine.

He closed his eyes and let her touch him, let his sense-memories merge with the reality of her fingers stroking him, first on his back then, when he didn't protest, moving to his shoulders and neck. A shiver traveled down his spine at the scratch of her nails over his nape and she let her fingers trail around his hairline to his jaw, learning the sharp angle and the slight bristle of a five o'clock shadow.

"Sheldon, do you want this? You said that you intended to pursue a dating relationship with me on your return to Pasadena, but you haven't done anything about it." She tried to look at his face but he turned away from her to disguise the need that was plainly written on it.

She decided to lay her cards on the table. "Sheldon, I want to fuck you. Not because we're friends, not because I have been while I was sleeping, but because you're my best friend and I want to cement that with something more permanent, beyond the bounds of friendship. I told you that I didn't do friends with benefits because I get emotionally invested. That's even truer in this case because I'm already invested in our relationship. I care for you in ways that I can't understand or explain, Sheldon."

He bowed his head and she felt the frustration build to a boiling point. Before she realized what she was doing, she had swung one leg over his lap and straddled him, her hands cupping his jaw and pulling his head up to look into his eyes. He looked startled, intrigued, and fearful and aroused all at one time and she found herself wondering how one set of eyes could express all that when she felt something poke her in the thigh.

"Sheldon, you turn me on." She leaned forward and kissed the corner of his mouth with soft, supple lips that were oh-so-familiar to him. He had thought of them enough.

"I don't know about you, but when someone turns me on, I want to do something about it. I want to touch them, taste them, learn what they like and what they want. I want you, Sheldon." She punctuated her words with tiny kisses over his cheeks and jaw, avoiding his lips.

"I think that you want me, too." She nodded to the erection that tented his pants and he covered it with his hands. "You know, I may not have an erotic memory, but I know a hard-on when I see one, Sheldon, and you're sporting a mighty fine specimen right there. I think that you want to have sex with me while I'm awake, so you can compare it to sex with sleeping Penny. Don't'cha?"

He could neither answer nor dispute her words. He didn't have the chance, considering that his lap was full of Penny and he was having a hard time disguising his arousal since it was pressed firmly to her buttocks.

Penny, on the other hand, was nervously looking at him at his own eye level for once. Or trying to. He tried avoiding her eyes, looking at anything and everything but her face as she pressed against him with only a tee shirt separating him from her body.

Exasperated, she finally grabbed his chin and forced his head to still. "Sheldon, look at me."

He did, raising his eyes from the H-U emblazoned on her chest and she was caught in their bluer than blue depths. "Sheldon, I'm going to have to kiss you now, you know that?"

"Yes, I surmised as much. I am prepared for such an onslaught."

He watched her come toward him in slow motion. "No, baby, you think that you are, but you're' not."

Her lips whispered over his mouth, slowly and gently. "I don't know what my technique is like when I'm asleep, but I know what I'm like when I'm awake and you'd never be ready for that." Her hands touched his face, his jaw, holding him still and moving him to allow her better access to all of him. Her lips caught his bottom lip and she sighed against his mouth. "Is there anything else you need to tell me before I make a fool of myself?" she asked.

"I would ask that you do not stop what you are doing. It is very pleasurable."

She smiled against his lips. "Oh, baby, there's not a chance in hell that I'm stopping now." Her tongue flicked in and out of his mouth quicker than a darting hummingbird and she wiggled against his bulge, pressing herself into the yielding bulk of him. "I wanna see if this dream is real or not."

"I can assure you, it is quite real."

She pressed her mouth and her body against him, touching him with every part of her that she could. He responded in kind, his hands wrapping around her hips to cover her ass, holding her in place as he arched himself to grind against her uncovered mons. Their kisses grew more passionate as their other motions increased until she was panting in his mouth, out of breath from excitement (and a little nervousness, but this was their first time with both of them awake, she rationalized).

"Sheldon, you have to touch me."

He ran his fingers up the outside of her leg. "Here, Penny? Or here, on your stomach. Perhaps this would be more to your liking," he said, stroking the underside of her breasts with his long-fingered hands. "I do better when I know what parameters you are demanding."

"Sheldon, touch me—touch me anywhere."

He pulled her shirt up over her head and she raised her arms to pull them out of the sleeves. He trapped her with her arms over her head by twisting her shirt in his one hand, the other roaming over her now naked flesh. "You have kept me at a disadvantage, Penny. Sleeping, unable to take control over the situation, clearly dominated by your wants and desires. I have thought of this moment for the last three months in various permutations and I think that it is time for you to allow me the upper hand, so to speak."

She looked down at him in surprise for a moment. He looked up at her, his eyes heavy-lidded and impassioned with need and she stopped struggling and let him have his way.

When he felt her give in, he felt a surge of triumph that only compared to proving a theorem. He nuzzled the space between her breasts, planting soft kisses over her breastbone and against her cleavage. His stubble, what little there was, scratched at her tender skin and she relished the sensation as he moved his mouth to enclose first one nipple, then the other. He teased them until they were hard peaks as he stroked her skin with his other hand, every swirling loop bringing him closer to her wetness. She could feel it as it spilled out onto her thighs, dampening the front of his pants as she panted and wiggled, trying to increase pressure where she needed it most. She didn't care about decorum, never had; she had a healthy view of sex and her body and she knew what it needed. Right now, it needed his touch and she was damned if he was going to withhold that from her.

"Please, Sheldon. Please touch me."

He finally acquiesced to her begging and pleading and touched her with the tip of his finger. She jerked as if it was a ten-thousand volt electrical jolt, arching toward him with her whole body and jerking her arms even further backward. He dropped her shirt and she yanked her arms out of the sleeves before he could grab it again, tossing it to the floor. Her hands were all over him before he could do much more, pulling at his shirts and his pants at the same time.

He used his knowledge of leverage and fulcrums and moved her off him to the side, stood, then offered her his hand.

She took it and dragged him into her bedroom, throwing herself down on the bed and pulling at his clothing once again.

Before he made another move, though, he had to speak his thoughts. "Penny, you said this does not fall under the friends with benefits paradigm. Is there another stage that we have entered into that I am not familiar?"

"Sheldon, just get your ass in this bed and—just come here. We'll figure it out tomorrow."

He pulled off his clothes piece by piece and she knew how frustrating it must be to watch strippers. All she wanted was to have him bare before her and he was taking his sweet time. When he was down to his boxers (not briefs, as she had previously seen), he pulled them down as he turned his back to her.

"Nuh-uh, buddy, you're not hiding from me now." She flipped him over onto the bed, on his back and gasped aloud at the size of him. He looked up at her, inordinately pleased at her surprise.

He pressed her back with a hand to her shoulder and she was putty under his touch. "I do believe that it is my turn to be on top, as they say."

Then she was under him, touching him, showing him how to touch her and shocked when he anticipated her moves. He eased his way inside her and she saw stars behind her eyelids as she moaned aloud, feeling completely full and amazingly content.

So content that she purred deep in her throat. "You do that quite frequently. Should I assume that it is a good thing?"

She opened her eyes and he was above her, rocking into her slowly, barely moving. "What do I do?" she asked shyly, searching his face for the answer to what should be obvious to her. She never realized that she did anything different from other girls; she just went with the flow most of the time and since she had never had any complaints, she never had any reason to doubt herself.

"You purr. It reminds me of a kitten."

She let out a breathy laugh, much like his own. "Oh. Well, I've done that since I was a kid when I really, really liked something."

He twisted his hips and she purred and gasped at the same time when he dragged himself over that tiny bundle of super-sensitive nerves. "Well, Kitten, I will just have to attempt to make you purr more frequently. I find that it is pleasurable to hear such aural vibrations when you are so incapable of appropriate vocalization."

Penny felt her heart swelling within her chest, along with a curious ache. She closed her eyes to hold the sudden onslaught of tears that blurred her vision; she couldn't let him see her cry because he would think that she regretted this. His eyes were tightly closed and she could almost see him reciting the digits of _pi_ to maintain his rigid control. She didn't want him to be lost in the numbers; she wanted him here with her, in the moment, with her completely.

Funny, she didn't regret sleeping with him right now; it was all the other times, when she was unable to enjoy the changing kaleidoscope of his expressions. She put her hands on his arms and felt the corded strength beneath the skin as he strained to keep the bulk of his weight off her.

Curious, she let her hands travel up his arms to his shoulders, his throat, his back, and her fingers mapping the muscles that leapt beneath her fingers and twitched under her gentle, light stroking. His jaw clenched and he reached down to take her hands and pin them above her head with one of his. "Penny, if you distract me from my purpose, this may not last very long."

He looked down at her and she strained her neck to reach for him, only able to drag her mouth over his throat and down to the notch of his collarbones. Her tongue lingered in the hollow of his neck, licking the slight sheen of sweat that pooled there. "I don't care, Sheldon. We have all night."

She could see that he was struggling to maintain some type of control and was both exhilarated and exasperated. "While I appreciate your hopes for my refractory period, I doubt that we actually have all night."

She frowned. "All right then, as long as we want. I have no plans. I know that you have your schedule, but we can adjust and accommodate." Her mouth slid across his skin and gathered more of the salty tang painting his flesh in a way that she had never seen, even during paintball.

He grunted, his nostrils flaring. "I have done so before. For you."

She easily pulled her hand from his grasp and cupped his face. "I know."

Sheldon looked down at her from his place above her, captured in her eyes. He saw something there, close to adoration, close to…something that he couldn't place or express, a feeling so alien that he immediately sought to reject it and block it from his mind. He found that he could not do so; if he succeeded, it would effectively cast Penny out as well and that was unacceptable.

Instead of answering, he dipped his head to sip at the sweetness of her mouth. He slid his arms beneath hers and cupped her shoulders, holding her close against him as he nuzzled against her throat. "Penny, my Penny," he murmured unconsciously as he traced the blue veins beneath the skin of her neck.

"Sheldon," he heard her whisper.

He drew back to look into her eyes again. Her hands cupped his face, fingers lacing through unruly hair that slipped over his forehead and pushing it back out of his eyes. He could tell by her gaze that she was memorizing his face and he wondered why, though the words caught in his throat and he was unable to ask the question.

"I'm glad that it was you."

Her statement startled him to stillness. "Excuse me?"

"I'm glad that it was you and not…someone else. They might have taken advantage of the situation. You wouldn't."

"You believe me to be faultless? I should have told you the first time that this happened between us."

She smiled up into his chin, and then kissed his cheek. "Sheldon, you didn't do anything wrong."

He flexed his buttocks and his cock twitched inside of her, forcing a gasp from her lips. "Perhaps not wrong, but if I had told you…."

"Then we might not be doing this. I get it. But this? This was inevitable. You can't deny that the cat's alive."

"Would we have ever tested the theory?"

She put her hands on his shoulders and he looked back down at her, feeling very ashamed at his behavior. "I wanted to—I was too afraid. At least, while I was awake. But I've been wondering about that cat for a while now," she said simply.

Any shame or discomfort he felt melted away and he looked down at her with new eyes. Her bold honesty forced him to be honest within his own mind and he realized that it was truth for him as well. "I have been experiencing similar musings upon the feline prisoner's situation when you are present."

"You know what that means, baby?"

"I am unable to ascertain a proper response to that question, Kitten."

She smiled wider at the pet name. "Well, they say that there's more than one way to skin a cat. Wanna see how many we can find?"

He started to sputter, and then discovered what she meant when she fluttered around him. Kitten, cat, Schrödinger's cat. She was certainly an enigma.

He smiled. "Yes, well, I'm certain that there are a multitude of methods. We need to find the most enjoyable, don't you agree?"

She nodded and he bent his head to kiss her once again, excited at the prospect of further experimentation.


End file.
